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Belgian IPA with Brett

My interest in beers with Brettanomyces has grown over time. Initially my experience with Brett was not one of great fondness. At the time, I had recently discovered New Belgium’s La Folie, the great American-face-punching-brown-sour and was so captivated that I was looking for anything else like it.

I ended up trying any of the potential “sour” beers that showed up in Texas and ran into a number of American farmhouse beers that utilized Brett. Anyone who has tasted La Folie will know that there isn’t a hint of “classic” Brett flavors or aromas, even if Brett is employed in the creation of La Folie. None of the “horse leather, sweat, funk, cheese” nose that can come from some Brett strains.

It was exactly those overly peppery, funky, sweaty flavors that had turned me off of Brett beers. But as with hoppy beers, which I didn’t originally enjoy, eventually your tastes change.

At this point, I can say that I’m having a similar transition from avoiding Brett beers to being completely enamored with any beer that utilizes Brett in any form.

One of the beers that literally changed my mind about Brett was the Sans Frontiére beer from the To Øl brewery. I received this great beer from the Rare Beer Club and initially was quite hesitant with the description. Hoppy Belgian but fermented with Brett. I decided that I would drink the beer as soon as possible to minimize the Brett character. What I encountered was an amazingly complex, dry, hoppy Belgian beer that fundamentally changed my outlook on Brett.

Earlier this year I was looking for something in the Belgian Blonde category for a local Pro-AM competition so on a whim, I sent an email to the To Øl brewery asking about Sans Frontiére and to my surprise, Tore Gynther, the head brewer there, (who started brewing with Mikkeller in Chemistry class) replied with the recipe. Fantastic!

Now that I’ve got a few strains of Brett around at the Woxford Brewery I figured it was time to see how well an all-brett hoppy beer would turn out. So let’s see how this one goes.